After months of speculation, Canada's Olympic team will finally start to take shape this week.
It will begin with the naming of Mike Babcock as head coach tomorrow or Wednesday, or at least, the expected naming of Babcock. Some will point to Detroit's Game 7 loss to Pittsburgh as reason enough to question Babcock's viability in this position, or the fact that he's lost two of three Stanley Cup finals as a coach, both in Game 7 situations.
The Olympics, obviously, include a short tournament with one or two big games. So you want a big game guy.
That said, that would be about the only speck on Babcock's otherwise terrific record. There is no obvious better candidate, although you could argue that if life were fair this would be Ken Hitchcock's turn to run Team Canada.
Having Babcock behind the bench sending out the likes of Sidney Crosby and Ryan Getzlaf, of course, will be an intriguing sight given the rivalries with Pittsburgh and Anaheim, respectively.
There will be suggestions, as there always are, that Team Canada executive director Steve Yzerman, a Red Wings executive, is "feathering his own nest" by picking Babcock to coach the team. But the controversy would be much greater if Yzerman didn't pick Babcock, thus preferring the coach of another club to Detroit's own.
The only other meaningful candidate is probably Brent Sutter, soon to sign on as Calgary's new head coach as part of a Flames' organization now thoroughly infested with Sutters from top to bottom.
But given Sutter's lack of NHL success so far, at least in the post-season, he would be an unlikely choice.
So Babcock should be the man this week, followed by a list of 40-plus players next week expected to be invited to the club's orientation camp in August. That is where you're likely to see more surprises that would be expected this week with the naming of a head coach.
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